The manipulation of juvenile hormone (JH) biosynthesis, receptor protein interactions, and metabolic degradations all offer the potential for the development of highly selective insect control agents. Currently, the rational design process suffers from insufficient knowledge of the specific proteins involved in recognition and deactivation of juvenile hormones. We propose to prepare a variety of JH analogs designed to serve as photoactivatable irreversible affinity labels ("photoaffinity labels") for proteins which transport, recognize, and catabolize insect juvenile hormones. In our laboratory and in conjunction with three collaborators, synthetic JH photoaffinity labels will be used in vitro to study Manduca JH carrier proteins, Leucophaea ovarian and hemolymph JH binding proteins (JHBP) Trichophisia JHBP, and Drosophila Kc cell JHBP. JH-Esterases and epoxide hydrolases will also be examined as targets for the photoaffinity technique. Labeled proteins will be purified and the site of inactivation determined. It is hoped that this will become a generally useful tool for rapid identification of JHBP from insect tissues.